Gambians must not forget the atrocities committed by President Jammeh’s regime and demand that the perpetrators of crimes be brought to justice. The government of President Barrow should relentlessly pursue and reclaim all the ill-gotten wealth accumulated by Jammeh’s family and its cronies. Any call for unity, reconciliation and forgiveness will be meaningless without truth and justice.

President Yahya Jammeh should save his family and thousands of innocent lives by retiring to his Kanilai Villa and later face the International Criminal Court. But as it is, he has chosen a worse fate. No effort should be spared to take down The Gambian tyrant and to install President-elect Adama Barrow.

For over two decades under President Jammeh, independent views were considered seditious. Secret police were everywhere listening for hints of subversion. Jammeh’s name was spoken only in whispers, unless you were praising him, in which case you genuflected and shouted yourself hoarse at rallies, thanking Allah for loving The Gambia so much as to bless it with a leader of such peerless morality, wisdom and compassion. That is why the people elected Adama Barrow on 1 December 2016.

Religious leaders and journalists are being persecuted in the Gambia under the dictatorship of President Jammeh. Yet, they have critical roles to play in cultivating a positive culture of understanding, harnessing the energies of citizens towards social and economic development in the genuine interests of the greater good

Repressed by their government for years, the force for change in Gambia is likely to come from citizens finding the courage to 'seek another way, from another place'.

As Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh secures a fourth term as president following the 24 November elections, Alagi Yorro Jallow highlights the country’s lack of both ‘a fair and effective electoral process’ and press freedom.

Since the 1994 coup d’état that saw President Yahya Jammeh rise to power, the Gambian media has been forced to work under repressive and restrictive conditions. The disappearance of editors and journalists, destruction of property and threat of imprisonment and harm by Jammeh’s National Intelligence Agency officers mean Gambian media outlets must either praise the ruling party or close their doors. Alagi Yorro Jallow, once an editor of a now closed private Gambian publication, discusses the Gambian government crackdown on the media and regulations under which a Gambian journalist must work.